Best Art Gallery

PSTL Gallery at Pace Framing

Sandra Marchewa and Paul Young — artists, framers and co-owners of Pace Framing — consistently maintain a challenging exhibition space that champions local artists with a distinct mix of modesty, sensitivity and acute aesthetic intelligence. Their former space, on North Grand Boulevard, featured a sliver of a window gallery that posed a unique challenge to the artists invited to create an installation. The framery's new Washington Avenue digs offer more space; despite the more conventional configuration, Pace's penchant for nuance and experimentation prevails. Notable show after notable show — from Bruce Burton's elegant wunderkammer of design ephemera and found objects to Peter Pranschke's trove of paper-based creations to Alex Elmestad's reflective cube that could only be perceived from the building's exterior — demonstrate that there is something about the nature of this space that nurtures resourceful creativity. Pace is an understated gem that promises to endure in its quiet advocacy of challenging the local status quo.